Inside the shadow realm, the cold never leaves. It seeps into every corner.
With last time's lessons learned, Jang Yu has mounted a small camera on his chest. First-person view. He crouches on a rooftop and scans the area. The aberrant count feels lower than yesterday. The shadow realm resets on a cycle. It was packed at first.
Then his gaze locks. Something lights up in his eyes.
There, crouched against the wall in a corner, is something that looks just like the specter he killed before. This one is lurking, playing it dirty, waiting in ambush.
Jang Yu pulls out his baseball bat and grins. Let me show you how it's really done. The hunt begins.
He's about to step forward and drop straight off the edge, and his foot stops midair. He looks down. This building is even taller than the last one. He swallows. Then he turns around and takes the stairs. Play it safe. Don't die doing something stupid.
In the alley below, a purple specter holds perfectly still in the shadows. Patient and predatory, a hunter in its own right. Worse, four tentacles writhe from its mouth. Its face is a nightmare.
Jang Yu spots it and immediately activates his new ability. Mark.
The specter freezes. It senses something but can't locate the source. Jang Yu watches with quiet satisfaction. It works. A marked target really does feel a flash of fear right on cue.
He studies the specter as it scans its surroundings. Wait. This thing looks a lot like that scythe creature from before. Could it be an evolved form? Doesn't matter. So have I.
He grips his heavy rod with full confidence and closes the distance without a sound. He comes up beneath it and swings with everything he has, straight into the abdomen.
A deep, heavy thud. The specter launches into the air. Its expression freezes. Its HP bar drops sharply.
Jang Yu sees the hit connect and moves instantly. He launches himself upward, charging after the airborne specter. Pursuit hunt activates. Strength and agility spike. He tears through the air fast enough to leave a trail of wind in his wake. He reaches the specter in an instant. He swings hard.
But the specter snaps back to its senses and twists out of the way.
Jang Yu blinks. He did not expect that.
No time to process it. The specter draws twin blades and comes at him in a fury. Jang Yu kicks off the wall and vaults into the air. The twin blades crash down where he'd been standing. The wall shatters.
Jang Yu lands, rod raised. The specter drops back to the ground. They face each other.
Then the specter laughs, a sound that crawls up the spine. The tentacles detach from its mouth and hang in the air before it.
Jang Yu reads the setup and his gut drops. He throws the rod up in a block.
The specter screams. Rings of sonic force blast toward him in waves. His head spins immediately. A mental attack. This thing has a mental attack.
He has no time to finish the thought. The twin blades are already on him, cutting left and right in a relentless crossing pattern. The impact rattles him to his core. He stumbles back. He checks his HP bar. His expression drops. That combo just shaved off thirty-four percent in one exchange.
The specter stands in the dust, twin blades glinting.
Jang Yu sizes it up. This thing is built like an assassin. High damage, high speed, a nightmare to fight. He wipes a bead of cold sweat from his forehead. Time to get smarter about this.
Jang Yu lands one solid hit on the twin blade specter and sends it into a slashing frenzy. But Jang Yu slips and weaves like he has no bones, laughing that smug little laugh the whole time.
Then he bolts, a streak of black lightning across the ground. The specter raises both blades across its chest and lunges.
Something is wrong. Both blades have wedged themselves into the walls on either side. The specter is stuck, completely pinned.
A black fist drives into its chest, hard.
Jang Yu grins. "Gotcha. All that power and speed, none of it matters here. No room to swing, nowhere to run. This is my turf now. You're not getting out of this."
The specter seethes with rage. The tentacles spread wide from its mouth once more.
Jang Yu sees this and drops it with one punch, cursing under his breath. "Not a chance you're pulling that again."
He follows up with a storm of rapid fire punches. Fists raining down on the specter without mercy.
The specter's screams cut off abruptly. Two wisps of black mist seep out from its eye sockets. Jang Yu spots the red weak point glowing on the specter's body and raises his fist for the finishing blow.
But his fist freezes in midair. Because the specter's face is starting to peel away.
Cold sweat runs down Jang Yu's face. How is this possible?
Beneath the specter's black shroud, a face emerges. Lin Mo. The Night Watch officer who died in battle.
Jang Yu's mind races. Wasn't Lin Mo taken away by the Night Watch? How did he end up like this? And what is he doing here?
A sudden burst of energy explodes from the specter's body. Caught off guard, Jang Yu is blasted off his feet. The specter's face twists back into its hideous form. It turns and bolts.
Behind it, Jang Yu shouts, "Stop!" and sprints after it with everything he has.
Moments later, in the deep stillness of a narrow alley, heavy, ragged breathing echoes off the walls. Slow, dragging footsteps follow. Jang Yu staggers in, drenched in sweat and gasping.
"Where's the aberrant? Where did it go?"
The system's voice cuts in. You were moments from a successful hunt, yet the prey escaped. This hunt is a failure. Be advised, consecutive failed hunts will erode your strength and your remaining lifespan. You know this well. Only through the hunt can you build your infamy and tighten your grip on the power over life and death.
But right now, Jang Yu is full of rage. Life feels utterly hollow. He says nothing. Already in a foul mood, the system's words only twist the knife deeper.
He slams his fist straight into the panel. "Enough," Jang Yu says, his voice dark and low. "Stop pushing me."
The system goes silent.
Jang Yu rubs his throbbing head. A hero who died saving others, and that's what he became in the end.
Then a thought strikes him. He looks up at his own reflection in the glass. If I die, will I turn into one of those things too?
His fists tighten. He knows there's no turning back. He has to keep hunting no matter what.